Answering the question of where Becky Hammon stands in the historical hierarchy of WNBA coaches is a lot like attempting to measure the Aces\u2019 dynasty to those of the past.<\/p>\n
Hammon, 48, has already stuffed her r\u00e9sum\u00e9 to the brim in four years. It\u2019s a fitting trajectory after she earned the league\u2019s 2022 Coach of the Year award for a season that saw her become the first to win a title as a rookie coach.<\/p>\n
The run continued as she led the Aces to their third title in a sweep of the Phoenix <\/a>Mercury<\/a>, securing the best career coaching record in WNBA Finals history (10-2).<\/p>\n While still in pursuit of the Aces\u2019 latest championship win, Hammon offered her view of what she and her team had already accomplished \u2014 using one of her signature metaphors, of course.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to analyze when you\u2019re a character in the book and it\u2019s still being written,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cBut it\u2019s all a journey, because you have a core group of individuals starting with A\u2019ja (Wilson), (Chelsea Gray), (Jackie Young) and myself. \u2026 When you\u2019ve got a history with each other, it can be really empowering to pull on that.\u201d<\/p>\n The same is likely true for evaluating her career. The potential for more titles seems endless with Hammon and her core intact.<\/p>\n Hammon\u2019s reflection on the Aces\u2019 accomplishments came as she considered what it took for the team to \u201cturn the page\u201d from its unsuccessful 2024 season. That effort required a sense of resilience and chemistry that the Aces showcased by winning 23 of their last 25 regular-season and postseason games combined, including their title-clinching Game 4 finals win last week.<\/p>\n Fittingly, Hammon landed at the podium with Wilson, Gray and Young when the WNBA championship run concluded in Phoenix.<\/p>\n \u201cThis group \u2014 especially these three,\u201d Hammon began, pausing to hold back tears. \u201cI love being their coach. \u2026 They\u2019re stuck with me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019re just happy to be on the ride\u2019<\/p>\n Sticking with Hammon is a prospect Wilson welcomes. Amid the latest championship celebrations, the four-time MVP turned to Hammon and made sure she knew it.<\/p>\n \u201cYou keep bringing championships to Vegas, and we\u2019re just happy to be on the ride with you,\u201d Wilson told her coach.<\/p>\n Hammon is one of four head coaches in WNBA history to win three titles. That exclusive group also includes her Aces predecessor Bill Laimbeer (three-time WNBA champion with the Detroit Shock, two-time coach of the year) and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve (four-time WNBA champion, four-time coach of the year).<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not just Hammon\u2019s coaching skill that sets her apart, Wilson said. It\u2019s her ability to build relationships with her players and pull the best out of everyone.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no surprise that Hammon can connect with players. She retired from her Hall of Fame career as a player in 2014 and draws from that experience in her current role.<\/p>\n Midseason trade acquisition NaLyssa Smith benefited from Wilson\u2019s coaching style this season.<\/p>\n \u201cShe just has a great balance of knowing how to push her players and then always motivating you and always telling you all the positive things,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI think, sometimes a lot of coaches, they forget that you have to have that balance or you\u2019ll lose your players. Becky does a tremendous job always just building everybody up regardless of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n No raise needed?<\/p>\n Aces and Raiders owner Mark Davis conducted an impromptu news conference after the Aces\u2019 Game 4 win.<\/p>\n The first question posed to him was about Hammon, and whether she should be the highest paid coach in the league.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s not?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n Davis hired Hammon after she worked under legendary San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich for seven seasons, a move that came with the announcement that she\u2019d be the WNBA\u2019s first coach to earn seven figures.<\/p>\n ESPN later reported that Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts overtook Hammon as the highest-paid coach in the WNBA when he was hired in 2023. But Davis pushed back in a recent conversation with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, implying that she\u2019s since earned a raise that went unnoticed by the media.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only time that there was a correct figure was when Becky was made the million-dollar coach, right when we hired her. And that was a statement that the value of these women is in the millions rather than the thousands,\u201d Davis said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I need to talk about her salary, the number in it, but I believe I would just ask again \u2014 she\u2019s not the highest paid?\u201d<\/p>\n Davis\u2019 confidence in what Hammon is earning comes amid a time where her name often appears in conversations surrounding who will become the NBA\u2019s first woman head coach.<\/p>\n When Popovich stepped down as Spurs coach and into a front office position in May, Hammon was mentioned by multiple national outlets as a potential successor given her experience and her reported previous consideration for other NBA vacancies like the Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m super happy where I am,\u201d Hammon said when asked about Popovich and the NBA.<\/p>\n With Hammon now even more decorated, it\u2019s hard to imagine that contentment will change any time soon for the Aces\u2019 commander.<\/p>\n Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @CallieJLaw<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Answering the question of where Becky Hammon stands in the historical hierarchy of WNBA coaches is a lot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-225487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}